Aiming at contrast and grain

I haven’t really done any contrasty BNW-stuff for a while, and the other day I loaded a roll of StreetCandy ATM400 into my little Petri Racer and brought it with me for some days, aiming at whatever caught my eye wherever I was at the time. I haven’t used the Petri Racer for a while, and I found this was an option to use it and its little, interesting lens.

The Petri Racer is a little rangefinder camera that I have used a lot on this blog. It was the camera that made this blog happen and the camera I used for my first two entries. I am very happy with the way the Petri makes the world look. It has a special tone to it that I cannot really put my finger on.

My first pictures for this entry were taken a few minutes after it stopped raining at a car-park when I filled my coffee-cup in the nearby petrol station. I experimented somewhat with the DOF on these images, and they are shot around f4 on the little 40mm lens. My favorite one is here:

Petri Racer, StreetCandy ATM400@400 – Rodinal 1+25, 6 minutes

As I aimed for the contrasty and somewhat grainy look on this roll, I went for a pretty concentrated dilution of Rodinal; 1+25. I guessed this dilution to give me the maximum accutance and give me deep and sharp contrast as well as the lovely Rodinal grain. I don’t really mind the grainy structure of Rodinal, and I find it to suit these kinds of images as it gives them a raw impression.

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A bit later that day, I went to an old, derelict school building to set up for the shoot mentioned in a previous entry. The first thing I noticed was the interesting lights in the old hallway. Filled with old chairs, a ladder, dirt and the smell of old building, it really gave an incredible shot. I shot this one on a tripod using f5.6 for 1/2 of a second, and I find that this shot shows the mood of the hallway well.

Then I went to an old museum where someone had backed their Tractor-trailer into a ditch. There were some interesting contrast to be captured there and I went for it.

All in all I am very happy with this roll of film. I got the grain and the contrast that I wanted, and the little Petri got another run. Shame it hasn’t been used for a while. It will not sleep as long this time.

Really pushing it with portraits

Sometimes you come across settings and situations where there just isn’t sufficient lighting to go smooth and grain free photography with reasonable shutter speeds and settings. Especially with living subjects, like people, you need to allow for some «life» in your model and hence use 4 seconds shutter speed. In these situations, an option is to push the film. However, when pushing film, you will lose some of the detail get increased contrast added to your images.

For this entry, I created a situation where I had very limited light, and I went for two 400 speed films which I pushed. My initial Idea was to push both of the two stops to 1600 and see what differences I could spot, but due to a change in lighting conditions, I had to do one of them at 3200, a three stop push.

Ilford HP5+@1600

My first film for this photoshoot was a roll of Ilford HP5+ Medium format film. This is a film I regularly shoot, and I am very familiar with the characteristics of this film at both 400 and 800, but I have never pushed it further than that before. Therefore, I was curious how it would deal with the extra stop of push, both in terms of grain and contrast.

The only lighting used for this shoot was the available light in the old derelict class-room and what I could reflect back using the «sunfire»side of my reflector. I shot as close to F4 as I could and got shutter speeds around 1/60th of a second.

Zenza Bronica ETR, 50mm Zenzanon f2,8, Ilford HP5+@1600, Fomadon Excel 1+1 18 minutes

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I was surprised to see the negatives when I pulled them out of the tank. I expected a very punchy-looking negative with a substantial lot of contrast and severe loss of detail, but the negatives looked reasonably good. The push was obviously visible, but not as prominent as I would have guessed. My quick scans also turned out some nice images. Although grainy, I like the look of these pictures.

I see that I got a bend mark on one of the images, I clearly was a bit unlucky when reeling the film for development.

Kodak Tri-X400@3200

If I expected grain and heavy contrast on the HP5+, I did not expect much of the images from the three stop pushed one. On my way home, I actually doubted my move and was already drafting my apology letter to the model, who friendly joined me for this experiment. I was, however surprised in two different ways.

Even though I followed the guidelines for a three stop push found in the massive dev-chart and had fresh and well tempered chemistry (20 degrees) some of these negatives came out very thin. I metered in the same way all the way through the shoot, and I obviously developed the whole roll at the same time so the big difference surprised me. I must have made a mistake with my metering at some of these images.

However, some of the negatives looked really nice. Although they were obviously very contrasty and punchy they looked to have kept at least some of the detail I looked for. As you can see in the pictures the push is very visible, and I would not go for a three stop push if it could be avoided.

Zenza Bronica ETR, 50mm Zenzanon f2,8. Kodak Tri-X400@3200. Fomadon Excel *1+1* 15,30 minutes

This shoot was a real gamble, and I am thankful for the model who helped me on this. Although I couldn’t really compare the two films because I had to do different pushes, I must say that I am surprised how well both films coped. However, I would say that the grain and latitude of the HP5+ appeals more to me than the TRI-X. But this is a personal observation.

I have decided to try out these negatives in the darkroom at some point, and I will post my results and workflow from that at a later point.

Trying out 645

For a while I have been looking to buy a 645 camera. Preferably a SLR of some kind and many different options have been considered. Both Mamiya 645, Pentax 645 and even some Hasselblads. However, some days ago, I came across a very reasonably priced Zenza Bronica ETR. I have had my experiences with Bronica. I once owned an Zenza Bronica S2 fitted with a beautiful Nikkor 80mm lens. I only sold this because it had the habit of giving me half frames a few times on each roll and I cannot afford wasting expensive film and possibly losing a strong shot due to a camera issue.

I contacted the seller on the ETR and we came to an agreement and got a deal together. Very reasonable and rather quick.

Zenza Bronicas are beautifully designed Japanese cameras, with incredibly sharp lenses and a rugged feel to it. The camera is heavy, about two kilos, and you can get them in different configurations. Later ones are more plasticky and lighter, but I don’t really mind the weight, as I often shoot on a tripod. My ETR came with a prism, eye-level viewfinder and a razor sharp 50mm f2,8 Zenzanon lens.

I went out the other day to test the camera, and I made some really beginner mistakes.

Fist of all, I used the wrong film. I loaded the camera with a Fomapan 100, because I had one lying around about to expire, and I found I could «waste that one» if the camera did not work properly. The biggest problem was that I went out on a very dull and overcast day where there was not really sufficient light to shoot 100 ISO. Because of this I had to shoot around 1/30th of a second, and I forgot to bring a tripod. A lot of motion blur later, I decided to discard the test and go out for another go with a different film.

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From my second attempt of testing this camera.

This second time, I went out in the morning as the fog was lifting from the lake (Mjøsa) and went for a short session Trying to capture some magic. Wiser than last time, I loaded the camera with a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400, a film I don’t use that often but had lying around and went down to the docks in Gjøvik.

Before I went out, I had a coffee. I documented my coffee with an image taken at f2,8, maximum aperture at 1/15th of a second.

Zenza Bronica ETR w 50mm Zenzanon 2,8. Kodak Tri-X400@400 Fomadon Excel 1+1 9 minutes

I am really surprised with the smooth bokeh the Zenzanon lens gives me, and I find that the Tri-X grain and contrast gives the image a really nice tone. A tone I don’t often find with Tri-X as I find it a bit to punchy in the contrasts for my taste. Similarly I like the way it handled my location by the lake.

I appreciate the tones I got in the picture of the anchor. Shot at f4, it gave me a perfect depth of field for this image and the Tri-X tones gives the smooth tones. I also love the way the background disappears into the fog behind.

In a slightly under exposed image of some birds fleeing away from the Norwegian winter which is approaching in a months time. I find this image to be a bit «gritty» but I will attempt to make a beautiful print of this image in the darkroom.

All in all, I am very happy with my new Zenza Bronica ETR, as well as my expedition into 645 format, and will shoot it regularly in the future.

Stay tuned

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Vintage shoot with Frida and her old Ford

Analog photography is has the loveliest tones imaginable for vintage style photography. The special look an old lens gives is an exquisite vibe to your photo that no digital preset can really copy, and the feeling of doing this with vintage equipment adds an extra element. Photography is not just about the picture, but the way to get there and the feeling of the process.

Yesterday I went out to photograph my friend Frida and her lovely 1950 Ford Shoebox. To go with me for this shoot, I chose two cameras. The Weist SL-35 and my lovely TLR, the Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex. Both these cameras are reasonably accurate and has sharp lenses that does really bring out that «vintage feel». I rolled up both cameras with Ilford FP4 Plus, A film that for me is my first choice when I want that «Vintage feel». This film has a really fine cubical grain structure, and has a more visible grain than other films around its speed, and I love how this grain structure affects the images.

My equipment for this shoot. Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex medium format TLR and the Weist SL-35, 35mm M42 SLR.

We met at a lovely location in Kapp just south of Gjøvik. This location used to be a condensed milk factory back in the days, but today it is used for cultural purposes among other things.

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We first set off with the Ikoflex. I shot as close to f4 as I could get, and did some bracketing with f5,6 to be sure not to overexpose too wildly. I shot the Ikoflex at its highest shutter speed around 1/300th of a second, but my guess is that this shutter speed is a bit slower. Probably around 1/250th which is still very good for a 70 year old camera like this.

Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex. Shot at f5,6 shutter speed around 1/250th of a second. Ilford FP4 Plus, developed in Xtol 1+1 for 10 minutes.

I refer to the Ikoflex as «the bird box» and this is one of my absolute favorite camera in use. When I bought it, it came from a Swedish Zeiss collectors house, and the seller did not believe that it worked. Probably because he didn’t really understand how it works. These cameras have their specific way of use, and you will not be able to shoot this camera if you don’t know how to load film in it and how to set it up.

When we were done with the film in the IKOFLEX, I changed it for some Kodak Portra 160, but these images are not included in this entry.

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We then set off with the Weist and its exquisite Weistar 135mm lens. I also shot this one as close to F4 as I could to get that lovely bokeh you get from this lens. This is the first time I tried this camera and lens for a shoot with a model, and I am very happy with how it performed.

Weist SL-35 with Weistar 135mm M42 lens. Ilford FP4 Plus shot at box speed. Kodak Xtol 1+1 – 10 minutes.

These are just quick scans of the negatives. This shoot will be finished as Darkroom prints. Whether the prints and the process of making them will be entered in this blog is yet to be decided.

All in all, I am very happy with how both cameras performed during this shoot and I feel humble and lucky for being allowed to with with people like Frida, who is on board with the analog nerdity.

Photographs open doors into the past, but they also alloq a look into the future
Sally Mann

Double tryout

A few months ago, I ordered a few rolls of StreetCandy ATM 400 off their own website. From previous experience I know that street film is very contrasty and that they are great to pull. I put one of the rolls in a new camera that I bought and planned to take it for a little spin around the area, looking for architectural shapes, trying to find shadows and deep contrasts. The trip did not happen because of Norwegian summer and some weeks of rain and dull weather.

The other day though, I went out for a hike in the forest looking for some sheep and forest details to photograph. I decided to try out the Street Candy at box speed for this trip, and I shot the whole roll of film that was in my camera.

The Camera

I love old, interesting and manual cameras. I often frequent thrift-shops and charity shops to see what kinds of old, forgotten and dusty stuff they have on their shelfs. On a recent trip to a local charity shop, I picked up a Weist SL35 with a «Super Weistar 135mm» lens. I have tried to google the camera, but not much came up. The best lead is that it could be a rebadged Chinon CX. Nonetheless, it is heavy as a brick and feels sturdy and solid in your hand.

I am happy for any details on this camera, as I do not know much about it other than that it seems to work perfectly and accurately. Even the lightmeter is working and fairly accurate based on this shoot.

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This was my first time trying out this camera, and I must say that this camera will become a frequent companion for me. the M42 screw mount makes me able to use some of my favorite lenses, and it is surely more accurate than my Zenith Olympic Edition.

The film

As I stated earlier, the film I used on this trip was a Street Candy ATM400 street film. You can buy it from the manufacturer’s own website and at a fairly decent price. Be aware that they use the slowest shipment partner you can imagine. From their address in France to mine in Norway, it used more than two months. I have tried to imagine how that can even be possible. In the current Covid-age I could have traveled to France, stayed two weeks in quarantine, picked up the film, traveled back to Norway, stayed two weeks in quarantine. This whole process would have been a quicker way of getting the film, than using their shipment partner.

My guess is that their films are delivered by just one man, picking the film up at their address, walking to a port somewhere in southern France. Who then jumps in a rowing boat, rowing around Gibraltar and over the Nordic Sea to deliver it. Probably.

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From their own website, you can learn something about this film. It is a medium speed, 400 ISO, film originally made for surveillance cameras to keep people safe. In the modern days, these systems have turned digital, and the films are unnecessary. Street-Candy has made this film available for film photographers to use, and I am truly grateful. This film is great, even when I took it out of its comfort zone and into the first.

Not what it was originally made to photograph.

The grain-structure is beautiful and very fine for a 400 ISO film, but as most other street films, it is very contrasty. In my negatives I saw the contrast immediately, and some were to contrasty to turn out anything in this setting, and a normal Tri-X or HP5 would maybe be a more suitable choice for this kind of shoot, but some of the results were really unique.

On Street-Candy’s website, it advised to refer to the same development cycle as for Ilford HP5 plus, which I did on this cycle. Eight and a half minutes in Xtol 1+0 and then normal stop and fix, rinse and Photoflo.

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I am looking forward to trying out my other rolls of this film both for proper street photography and pulled one stop for portraits. I can imagine brilliant results from this film. I am also surprised to see how well it coped in the forest with the sheep and structures I found out there

All in all I am very happy with both the camera and the film, and if I would order this film again. If you come over a Weist SL35 at a decent price, it is worth buying. My cost 35 Norwegian kroner, approx 3,5 Euros.

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.
Ansel Adams

Landscapes Fomapan 100

As mentioned in previous posts, I made 2020 my year of getting familiar with the amazing and affordable Fomapan 100.

Back in July, I was traveling around in Northern Norway with the mission of taking photographs and testing out some old equipment. In this edition, an Olympus OM-1 and a roll of Fomapan 100. Along I also brought a set of colored and graded filters that I found cheaply online at Kent Faith Project. I have been curious to try out some square filters in my photography and also to try out color filters with gradient effects.

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My Olympus has a Zukio 50mm lens, which is extremely sharp and well focused. But the filter-ring was slightly dented, so the space-ring for 49mm did not quite fit. I had to use some heat and some pliers to round it back out again, and I managed to fix this without damaging anything.

Photo taken without any filters on the lens. For reference use only.

The second day of my trip, I had to catch a ferry in Bindal. I thought I would have good time, but miscalculated and suddenly had a two hour wait in the middle of nowhere without anything to do. I decided to do some test-shooting with the Olympus, a Fomapan 100 and an orange and an orange gradient filter.

I shot sunny 16, and with the available light, I chose f8 and 1/125 for my shots. The image above shows the results without a filter. Shows a wide variety of grays and the lovely fine grain of the Fomapan 100.

Shot with the gradient filter from orange to UV

In the shot above, I used the gradient filter organge/clear. I did bracket the shots here, since I was not 100% sure how the gradient would turn out, but I actually fell for this, slightly under-exposed image, because of the lively grays in the distant mountains. I love the way the gradient filter made the skies pop without underexposing and losing detail in the other parts of the image.

Taken with the orange filter. Compensation used was two stops.

For the orange filter shots, I also bracketed. I chose to use this image, where I compensated two stops with the shutter and shot at 1/30 with f8. To the right you can see the savior arrive. The ferry I had been waiting for, and hence this was one of the last shots before I returned to the car and continued my journey.

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All in all, I am falling in love with the Fomapan 100. When developed in Xtol 1+0 it produces a smooth, but characteristic grain that gives the images a natural and somewhat «raw» look that I truly adore.

Also the Square filters from Kent Faith are great stuff to play with, and I will upload another entry at a later time focusing on these.

Thank you for reading!

JCH Streetpan 400 for portraits?

A little while ago, I was given a roll of 120mm film from Japan Camera Hunter named the «Streetpan 400». I tried it out and got beautiful results with high contrasts and exquisitely fine grain for a 400 iso film. The deep contrasts got me thinking. How would this film work for portraiture?

I bought a few rolls directly from JCH in Japan, and due to the Covid 19 situation it took a while for them to arrive. When it finally came I put a roll in my Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex, cheap TLR, and decided to bring it to take some portraits with Ada. We met at Kremmerodden, a lovely location in Norway and took some pictures.

The Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex, with a roll of JCH Street Pan 400

I decided to shoot the film at 200 and develop a bit shorter (pull processing) in order to retain some shadow detail. This film is widely discussed online for its ink-black shadows and high contrast, and for portraits in direct sunlight, this was not my biggest wish.

I will not go deep into anything technical about this film, I am no expert on emulsions and films, and there are millions of reviews and opinions about it available online.

I was very uncertain about how this film would handle being pulled a stop, but I am happy to report that it deals well with one stop over exposure.

My process was:

One minute presoak in water to remove the anti-halation layer. This water comes out nearly black.
Development in Kodak Xtol 1+1. Development time for this film at 400 is 17 minutes. Since I pulled it one stop, I reduced the development time by 20% and a total development time at 13 minutes 40 seconds with agitation every minute.
Water-stop and fix as usual
15 minutes under running water for wash.
Final wash with Photoflo

I am happy with the results. What you see here are scanned negatives that have been merged and somewhat cleaned in Photoshop. I will take some of these negatives to the darkroom for printing there later.

Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex – Japan Camera Hunter (JCH) Street Pan 400@200, Xtol.

Do I like this film for portraits? Yes. I would use this film again for portraits and pull it to 200 for certain portraits. Especially portraits where I want to retain some contrast and get a nice palette of grey. However, for portraits at this location, I’ll probably stick with Ilford FP4 box speed or Kodak Tri-X at 200.

Thanks for reading

“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
Dorothea Lange

Sunny day at Dokka

Today, I had a portrait assignment in Dokka, a little town nearby, and I brought the Voigtländer with an Ilford Delta 100 loaded in it.

I had the Voigtländer well placed in its leather casing.

The location for my assignment was at a defunct railway station now used for rail bikes. I arrived a bit early to enjoy the sunshine and, hopefully, make some great images. I was not the only living creature enjoying the sunshine this lovely day. I also met some very social and eager horseflies and mosquitoes. A part of the Norwegian summer.

A little tip for shooting in Norway where light isn’t that bright; think «Sunny 11» not «sunny 16». The lighting conditions in Norway are not as bright as further south in Europe.

Maybe not in mint condition, but for sure a great model. And after all, the BMW still is on its wheels.

Since the Voigtländer is not a rangefinder or markfinder, the focus is based on guessing distance. Not too difficult for street photography and the lens is really interesting. Looking through the pictures after scanning, I can see that I should have used the sun shader following the lens.

I developed in Xtol 1:1 for 8 minutes 20 sec in 21 degrees chemistry. Then rinse and stop in water, and seven minutes fixer.

New for this development cycle was that I used a new termometer, as my last one died an Xtol death from falling into the tank of stock. RIP.

A Summer day adventure with a Voigtländer Vito B

A few days ago I got hold of an old Voigtländer Vito B in «unknown condition». I know from before that Voigtländers are relatively sound cameras, and took it for a test drive with a Kentmere 100 onboard.

The small viewfinder tells me that this is a camera from the earlier production years, between 1954 and 1957. The fucis is done buy measuring the distance manually and setting it manually to the camera. No rangefinder or markfinder.

It’s always fun to play around with an old camera like this, and I must say that despite it’s reputation for being «immensly grainy» I am very happy with the results the Kentmere 100 provides. My guess is that photographers complaining about the grain are either after a smooth as gold PAN-F like smoothness, or just overexposes the film and gets grain in the scanning process.

As previously with the Kentmere, I chose to develop in Xtol 1:2 and used 10 minutes in 24 degrees chemistry. The negatives came out fairly evenly exposed and I am happy with the results.

An old-camera adventure

The oldest camera I own is an Argus C21 from 1947. I bought this one rather cheaply last summer and it was in «unknown» condition. I tried a film in it back in last summer, but the back lid, fell off and the film got ruined. Then i forgot all about the little Argus.

Today I brought the old Argus back to life with a Kentmere 100, and brought it along as I went for a little drive.

A little documentation image of the Argus C21 and the film.

When the negatives came out of the tank, they looked farily evenly developed and exposed, but when scanning and working with the negatives, it is clear that the lens sufferes from some hazing and probably build-up of dust.

That said, I am really intreagued by the results, and they show that the old Argus still has a sharp eye.

Also, the Kentmere 100 shone with its traditional grain structure, and gives the images a really old fashioned look, even in Xtol. The development cycle for this round was Xtol 1:0 9 minutes 45 seconds at 18,5 degrees. Then I used a water stop, six minutes fixer, rinse and photoflo. Images turned out ok.

The camera does also scratch the film slightly as you can see in this photo. It might be mendable, but I do not mind a few scratches from a camera this age. Especially not at the price I payed, around 15£.

Also, I like how the Argus focuses, It gives a really sharp middle of the picture focus and a gentle unsharpness at the edges, making a vignetting effect which is pleasant.